The Kansas City Chiefs have the first overall pick in this month’s NFL Draft, but they may not have it for much longer. According to CBS Sports NFL guru Mike Freeman, the Chiefs are showing a serious willingness to trade out of the top spot in the draft and are not only open to this idea, they’re advertising it in “neon lights” to potential partners.
"Some team personnel men are saying the Kansas City Chiefs are making it clear they are willing to trade out of the top overall spot. They are basically advertising this, I’m told, in neon lights. Like a special at Macy’s. One scout called it “begging.” The Chiefs aren’t giving the pick away but they are letting many people know the pick can be had."
It shouldn’t come as too big of a surprise, as the Chiefs haven’t been had a prospect locked into the top spot, rather someone has been locked in for them. Texas A&M left tackle Luke Joeckel is widely believed to be the Chiefs pick if they stay put at the top spot in the draft, but they have other needs and could benefit greatly from trading down. Not only can the Chiefs trade down and still grab a left tackle like Eric Fisher or Lane Johnson, Kansas City would get some og the picks back they traded to San Francisco to acquire Alex Smith back in March.
The Chiefs surrendered their second round pick — the 34th overall– to the Niners to rope in Smith, and they’d love nothing more than to get back into the second round. As Freeman stated, the Chiefs won’t be giving away the top pick, but they don’t have to stay there and actually might be better off moving down a few picks within the top-10.
If you need anymore motivation to trade down, Freeman notes the high first-overall pick bust ratio throughout the history of the draft. The Chiefs are getting the top pick in a boom era for first picks. The last five first overall picks (Andrew Luck, Cam Newton, Sam Bradford, Matthew Stafford and Jake Long) have all developed into solid players, or in the case of Luck, Bradford and Newton, are on the cusp of being something really special.
So that either means the Chiefs are going to strike gold at the top of the draft, or they’re destined to be the team that breaks up the streak — which is such a Chiefs move.
A trade likely won’t be made until at least 48 hours before the draft, but it’s beginning to look like while the Chiefs earned the first overall pick in the draft, they don’t want anything that comes with it.